Craniofacial osteotomies to facilitate skull base tumour resection.

In order to expose deeply situated tumours of the skull base in various regions, the concept of osteotomies of segments of the facial skeleton has been developed. The portion of skeleton overlying the tumour is removed, the lesion is resected and the removed bony structure is then reinserted. This has greatly facilitated tumour removal in difficult areas. The advantages of this approach are, to the surgeon, total en bloc resection of deeply situated tumours with few complications; for the patient, an improvement in the quality of the aesthetic result following resection of recurrent or potentially lethal tumours.